2010 Report on Doing Business in the East African Community

Rwanda is the most highly ranked economy to do business in the East African Community (EAC) region.  This is according to the Doing Business 2010 Report compiled by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation. The Report measures business regulatory reforms and this year  ranks Rwanda as the top reformer in the world, along with Egypt and Liberia, both in the top 10 global reformers list.  

The Report finds that the 5 EAC countries (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) are undertaking regulatory reforms, even under the Common Market Protocol, but still have further to go and as such, no East African country makes it into the global top 30 economies. However Mauritius ranks no.17 globally and is the only African country in the world's top 30. 

Indeed, the average ranking for East African countries is 116th out of 183 economies overall. However performance varies across East Africa countries from Rwanda, which ranks 67th on the ease of doing business to Burundi, which ranks 176th.

What is interesting about the EAC report is that if each East African country were to adopt the region’s best practice for each Doing Business indicator, East Africa would rank 12th on the ease of doing business rather than 116th. In other words, if the best of East African regulations and procedures were implemented across the board, the business environment in East Africa, as measured by Doing Business, would be comparable to that in Thailand (12th in the 2010 global rankings on the ease of doing business). 

In recent years, EAC economies have intensified efforts to cooperate and learn from one another. They have also worked to harmonize legislation relating to the EAC Customs Union and even concluded Common Market Protocols.  Since a key objective of the EAC is to develop an effective common market, the Report provides a good basis for comparing regulatory performance across the region, and identifying how this can contribute to deeper regional integration.

The full EAC Doing Business report can be obtained here.